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Post by bixaorellana on Nov 17, 2018 22:50:17 GMT
Yes, that would be dreadful and heartbreaking. I was thinking of the shot in the clip -- shown twice -- of the girl lying on her stomach.
The other thing that struck me was when her boyfriend(?) yells, "It's only a memory!" Can you imagine being told that under the circumstances?
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Post by rikita on Nov 19, 2018 1:04:09 GMT
hearing about stories like this always makes me wonder if the parents should have known and just closed their eyes, worry if i'd know, how to make sure i'd know ...
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Post by kerouac2 on Nov 28, 2018 12:17:27 GMT
The Portuguese movie Diamantino is outstanding. It's about the best football player in the world but perhaps one of the dimmest. To score during a match, he imagines that he is running through pink clouds in a field of giant puppies. But he is very troubled by encountering a little boat full of migrants on his yacht and screws up a penalty at the final of the World Cup because he is thinking about it. He falls into disgrace. He decides to adopt a refugee. He calles them fugees because he doesn't even know the word refugee. His evil twin sisters are outraged. They have been stealing all of his money and putting it in an offshore account in Panama. If this weren't enough, two lesbian investigators are trying to find grounds to arrest him for tax evasion. One of them disguises herself as a teenage boy from Moazambique, and that's whom he adopts. Meanwhile, a horrible government minister wants to clone him to create an invincible football team for Portugal. He is injected with fish DNA and grows breasts. (He thinks they are cysts.) The National Front also uses him to film xenophobic propaganda to ensure that everybody votes to leave the EU and build a big wall to seal off Portugal from the rest of Europe. And then things start to get weird... Poor guy, he is so dumb that he just doesn't understand what is going on.
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Post by kerouac2 on Dec 1, 2018 19:09:50 GMT
Robin Hood is total crap. No surprise there. The Nutcracker is quite passable for something like that.
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Post by kerouac2 on Dec 3, 2018 6:08:00 GMT
Widows is so totally boring! What went wrong, Steve McQueen?
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Post by bixaorellana on Dec 3, 2018 6:30:22 GMT
Is Roma going to open in Paris? It had a brief showing here, but the tickets sold out almost immediately, with people waiting in lines around the block. I'd really like to see that on the big screen.
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Post by kerouac2 on Dec 3, 2018 6:38:37 GMT
No, apparently they did not strike a deal for France. It opened in a few places in Italy and Spain.
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Post by whatagain on Dec 3, 2018 19:39:55 GMT
I went to the movie this week end ! Finally went to see Bohemian Rhapsody - loved it.
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Post by kerouac2 on Dec 3, 2018 20:08:30 GMT
Ah, so your daughter can approve of you!
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Post by whatagain on Dec 3, 2018 20:14:26 GMT
it was part of the deal...
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Post by kerouac2 on Dec 6, 2018 21:04:14 GMT
I saw the new Guillaume Nicloux film Les Confins du Monde (To the Ends of the World) with Gaspard Ulliel. It takes place in Vietnam in 1945. The French are trying to regain their control over Indochina after WW2 but the Vietnamese have different ideas, even though the Japanese are still occupying the north. As the movie begins, a terribly wounded Gaspard Ulliel crawls out of a muddy pit of dead bodies. The Japanese or maybe the Vietnamese -- who knows? -- have slaughtered all of the local residents, including his brother and the brother's wife. He manages to get to a village, where the locals take care of him for a month and then he gets to a city with French soldiers. He was a soldier and wants to get back into a regiment to take revenge on the people who killed his brother. So the movie is basically about his renegade patrol hunting down a specific person that he wants to kill. I have never seen so many horrible decapitated and dismembered bodies in a movie, and all of the severed heads looked much more realistic than I have seen in the past. He falls in love with a prostitute (how else does a soldier in a horrible place let off steam?) but nothing will ever bring him solace. It was a sad but quite good movie and was really filmed in Vietnam with incredible scenery.
I also saw Kirill Serebrennikov's remarkable movie Leto. It was an official entry in this year's Cannes film festival but the director is under house arrest in Russia, so he could not attend. It's about rock musicians in Leningrad in the 1980's. Rock music was just beginning to be tolerated, just barely. Concerts could be held in closed areas, but everybody had to remain seated at all times and there were people to make sure of it. There was a sort of fence straddling cultural woman who did her best to keep things going -- she was constantly telling the authorities that anything they thought might be provocation was to be taken with a grain of salt, so they should not be upset.
The movie follows two rock musicians who really existed -- Mike and Viktor and their groups Zoopark and Kino. Actually, their lives seemed quite free and alternative, just like anywhere else. The big difference is that all of the western cultural influences arrived in the Soviet Union at the same time, so they were just as likely to mix Dylan with Bowie or Lou Reed with Kraftwerk. The music was really quite good. Back in the days when I bought soundtrack albums, I would definitely have bought this one.
There was a love triangle, non violent but upsetting anyway. And the two singers died in 1990 and 1991 so they never even got to see the end of Soviet rule...
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Post by bixaorellana on Dec 7, 2018 0:12:25 GMT
Leto looks like a winner. everybody had to remain seated at all times -- !!! Do you know how/why they both died?
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Post by kerouac2 on Dec 7, 2018 4:33:14 GMT
One of them was in a car accident at age 27. I'll see if I can look up the other one.
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Post by kerouac2 on Dec 7, 2018 6:02:33 GMT
Okay, I looked them both up. Viktor Tsoi (1962-1990) fell asleep at the wheel on the way back from a fishing trip and hit a bus. Mike Naumenko (1955-1991) died of a cerebral hemorrhage, either from a fall or perhaps an agression -- there is a conspiracy theory about it.
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Post by bixaorellana on Dec 7, 2018 16:58:16 GMT
Both so young! Of course with any deaths of the young there is always the sad speculation about how their lives would have evolved. But it seems particularly bitter that they didn't live to see the great changes in their country.
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Post by kerouac2 on Dec 7, 2018 17:18:53 GMT
And let's not forget that controversial personalities in Russia still have an amazing number of accidents.
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Post by kerouac2 on Dec 8, 2018 15:12:11 GMT
I was not expecting all that much out of the film Pupille (which means 'ward' as in 'ward of the state') even though I knew I liked all of the actors in it, but I found it to be amazingly well done. It follows, first, a young university student who rushes to a hospital to give birth. She had only realised that she was actually pregnant two months earlier and absolutely does not want to keep the baby. So she gives it up anonymously, doesn't want to touch it or even look at it, and yet she does not seem to be a bad person. Then, a social worker comes to fill out the forms with her, to explain the consequences of her decision and also that she has two months to change her mind. At the same time, a gruff but tender foster carer on the verge of burnout is convinced to take in the baby until an adoptive family can be found. The movie covers all of the angles -- interviews with candidates for adoption, arguments at the adoption board on which family should get to adopt the baby, enraged people who have been rejected, the hospital nurses... I found it completely gripping.
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Post by lagatta on Dec 8, 2018 15:56:20 GMT
A TV discussion about the film, the issues raised and the emotional aspects: I want to watch that - some of the other films K2 watched are far too violent for me.
I hope we can be "good people" even if we've never wanted children!
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Post by kerouac2 on Dec 8, 2018 16:08:09 GMT
A lot of people don't know this, but the director Jeanne Herry is the daughter of actress Miou Miou and singer Julien Clerc.
Meanwhile, as for Gilles Lellouche he had one of the biggest hits of the year in France for a film that he directed but did not appear in -- Le Grand Bain (Sink or Swim in English) about a group of mostly middle aged men who become members of a male synchronised swimming team. It is a total 'feel good' movie in the same genre as The Full Monty.
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Post by rikita on Dec 9, 2018 1:31:33 GMT
A TV discussion about the film, the issues raised and the emotional aspects: I want to watch that - some of the other films K2 watched are far too violent for me. I hope we can be "good people" even if we've never wanted children! hm, that's a bit frustrating to watch: i understand just enough to want to know exactly what they are saying ...
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Post by lagatta on Dec 9, 2018 3:02:35 GMT
Yes, I got it (here in Québec) in the orignal French, and unfortunately it is technically very difficult to translate the dialogue to another language without equipment. I could copy everything into print, but as you know, that would be a hell of a lot of work. Hope it is soon subtitled in German or in English!
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Post by kerouac2 on Dec 9, 2018 4:45:22 GMT
One line that I liked from the interview was "the kind of film that makes you want to pay your taxes."
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Post by kerouac2 on Dec 12, 2018 21:52:06 GMT
So, I saw the Norwegian movie Utøya 22. juli about the massacre by Anders Breivik on 22 July 2011. As you know, he killed 77 people and wounded 151. This movie never shows him. It follows a girl on the island of Utøya. She chats with friends, quarrels with her sister, the usual stuff... and then there are people running from gunfire and nobody knows what is going on. The tour de force of the movie, which is 93 minutes long, is that the duration of the attack -- 72 minutes -- is filmed in just one non-stop take. The girls runs with other people into the administration building where they huddle. But then it seems as though the killer has entered the other end of the building, so they all run out. She runs with a small group (5 people?) into the woods, and they hide there. The sound effects are terrifying -- the blasts of gunfire and people screaming, but you never see them. The girl leaves the group because she absolutely wants to find her sister. She creeps through abandoned camping tents, her sister isn't there, she finds a young terrified boy, tries to help him but then she end up down on the edge of the lake, sporadic gunfire at all times. Who is doing this? How many are there? Where are the police?
Believe me, this is a very upsetting 72 minute period. There are bodies here and there. She finds a wounded girl and tries to help, but the girl dies in her arms. Bang bang bang -- you never know if the killer is going to appear suddenly.
Boats begin to appear to evacuate survivors. You never see the police, you never see the killer... And then it all comes to an end. I won't even hide it with a spoiler, since you will never see this movie -- after living with this girl's terror for 71 minutes, she is killed in the last minute. Devastating.
Totally different French trailer
And another different trailer
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Post by kerouac2 on Dec 15, 2018 13:49:07 GMT
Mortal Engines is one of the most totally WTF movies that I have seen this year. Frankly, it is totally ridiculous but it was so over the top that I liked it.
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Post by casimira on Dec 16, 2018 15:08:53 GMT
Is Roma going to open in Paris? It had a brief showing here, but the tickets sold out almost immediately, with people waiting in lines around the block. I'd really like to see that on the big screen. ROMA is available for online streaming on Netflix. (it's one of their productions). Not quite the same as seeing it on the "big screen" I know. I haven't viewed it yet but am likely to going to plunge into it very soon.
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Post by kerouac2 on Dec 16, 2018 15:18:54 GMT
This year's Japanese winner of the Palme d'Or at the Cannes film festival Manbiki kazoku is absolutely extraordinary, but there is clearly a problem for finding an appropriate title for the other countries of the world. The English language title is Shoplifters, which makes it sound like a zany comedy. The French title is Une affaire de famille (A Family Affair), which conveys no meaning whatsoever. Just as an aside, I saw that it got a 99% critical rating on Rotten Tomatoes and a 92% audience rating. It should also be mentioned that many Japanese considered the movie to be a complete insult to the country and to Japanese values, to the extent that the prime minister of Japan refused to send congratulations to the director for his prize in Cannes.
It's about a dysfunctional family which is not even a family at all. The adults are living on the edge in miserable conditions, and they have "collected" 3 children over the years, partly out of a sort of kindness and partly because they are useful tools for theft. The movie opens one icy night when the "father" and his purported son have had a successful shoplifting session at the local supermarket, even though they forget the shampoo that was on the list. Going home, they see a little girl who has been locked out on the porch of her house, while her parents are having an argument. Would she like a nice hot croquette that they have just bought? Yes, she does. But she is shivering and seems miserable, so it only seems appropriate to bring her home. There is a brief moral debate on whether or not she should be taken back to her own family, but this family is not very high on morals, so in the end they keep her. Easy to do because she is adorable and is totally happy to stay with them.
So we have the two "parents" and their three children and also a granny, who tends to bedwetting and other problems. The children have been told that only unfortunate children go to school, the ones who "can't be taught at home." So there are all sorts of sessions for survival, usually involving theft, but also working in a peep show dressed as a Japanese schoolgirl...
And yet nothing seems sordid -- this is a very nice family, just not very traditional. The granny dies, so they bury her under the floorboards because they can't afford a cremation, and anyway it is nobody's business. Just don't tell anyone.
Obviously, things go wrong sooner or later. The police arrive, the children are sent to foster homes, the parents are locked up. But that is not the end of their lives. Just go with the flow.
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Post by bixaorellana on Dec 17, 2018 1:43:34 GMT
*sniffle* That looks wonderful! I loved Fathers & Sons and this looks every bit as good.
Casimira, I'm trying to hold out for the big screen. I'm in Mexico City right now & the posters for Roma are everywhere. And the tickets are still sold out everywhere!
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Post by kerouac2 on Dec 17, 2018 11:30:33 GMT
Spider-Man, into the Spider-Verse was not at all on my list of movies to see, but the reviews were so good (97% positive), that I decided to check it out. It is absolutely remarkable and this is true: a groundbreaking visual style that's the first of its kind
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Post by lagatta on Dec 18, 2018 18:24:44 GMT
Yes, interested though I am, I doubt I could stand to see Utoya. (I've worked at several similar youth gatherings).
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Post by kerouac2 on Dec 18, 2018 18:49:14 GMT
I had run out of movies to see today (at least on any sort of priority list) so I just went to my usual 27-screen multiplex and decided on a movie once I arrived. I quickly narrowed it down to three possibilities -- Assassination Nation, about social media wreaking havoc in a small town and creating some sort of murderous mob, The Possession of Hannah Grace, an exorcism horror movie in a hospital and Rémi, sans famille, a French heartwarming classic remade for the nth time about an orphan on the run.
Just based on the running times, I chose The Possession of Hannah Grace. Worst. Idea. Ever. Possessed Hannah is immediately killed in the opening scene. She is so horrible during the exorcism that her father smothers her with a pillow. But three months later, her corpse is brought into a Boston hospital, where it is an ex-policewoman's first night on the job on the graveyard shift in the morgue. This hospital has severe electrical problems because the lights light up nothing and work on motion sensors that slowly turn on flickering fluorescent tubes and then turn them off again much too quickly. It also has substandard corpse trays, because those damned lockers keep popping open when they are supposed to be closed. Dead Hannah is quite agile because sometimes her mangled, mutilated and half-burned body crawls on all fours like a crab, but other times she can stand up, and she can also scuttle up walls and ceilings like a spider when she feels like it. Okay, about a half dozen deaths later, she is finally incinerated. This is one of the only scenes that I enjoyed because can you imagine what it is like to be shoving a corpse into the incinerator when it suddenly tries to pull you in with it?
I will spare you the trailer.
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